A Brief Look: The Paintings of Samantha Keely Smith

The paintings of Samantha Keely Smith are built for the long pause. For epic silence. There’s a science to her landscapes — molten sunlight and a gaseous earth.

They’re frightening for the same reason they are beautiful — they push into the vast beyond. Her canvases can be up to 60″ long and with that space she creates the oceans and the abyss, color fields meditative and ancient that collapse time into Smith’s single frame.

Smith’s ability to be captivating without painting figure or form is remarkable. Her focus is on something else, something outside of the real world of office buildings, politics, and the people who move it all about. She’s after the unknown.